The Antarctic ice sheets preserve a record of the volcanic ash layers and chemical aerosol signatures of local and distant volcanic eruptions. Correlation of individual tephra layers, or sets of layers, in blue ice areas will allow a better understanding of the geometry of ice flow in these areas. Tephra layers in deep ice cores can also provide unique time-stratigraphic markers in cores that are difficult to date.

Data include an Excel spreadsheet and a text file with Global Positioning System (GPS) locations of tephra samples, text files that contain different analyses of the samples, GIF format files of sampling location maps and backscattered electron images of tephra samples. Data are available via ftp.

This research was supported by NSF grant OPP-9527373 ("Collaborative Research: Volcanic Record in Antarctic Ice: Implications for Climatic and Eruptive History and Ice Sheet Dynamics of the South Polar Region").

Analyses are made using a Cameca SX-100 electon microprobe. Geochemical quantities are in weight %. Analyses are normalized to 100 wt.%, and Na2O is normalized to the value obtained by neutron activation analysis. Analytical precision, based on replicate analyses of standard reference materials of similar composition to the unknows, are as follows (all in wt.%): SiO2±0.47, TiO2±0.03, FeO±0.06, MnO±0.06, MgO±0.07, CaO±0.02, Na2O±0.55, K2O±0.27, P2O5±0.02, Cl±0.07.